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Wednesday, 29 May 2013 |
- The Kenyan parliament has passed a motion to take emergency measures to tackle the on-going poaching crisis: last week Kenyan MPs approved higher penalties for poachers including fines up to $120,000 and 15 years in jail.
- The new penalties would come into place just as Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is pursuing a gang of poachers that slaughtered four rhinos over the weekend.
- Both rhinos and elephants have suffered heavily as poaching has escalated, sending a shock to the tourism industry which relies heavily on wildlife populations and perceived security around wildlife reserves.
- Since January 1st, Kenya has already lost 117 elephants and 21 rhinos to wildlife poachers.
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Friday, 24 May 2013 |
- African Parks rangers in Garamba National Park in DRC had an armed encounter with a Lords’ Resistance Army (LRA) group on Saturday, May 18th after being deployed to investigate a poached elephant that had been sighted in the park.
- In the exchange, park rangers injured one of the LRA combatants, and two young women captives of the LRA were killed in the crossfire.
- Last week’s encounter comes at a time of growing concern over the increase in LRA activity in and around Garamba. According to the online LRA Crisis Tracker, there have been 45 LRA incidents in and around the park this year, the highest level of LRA activity in central Africa.
- The activities of the LRA appear to be increasingly funded by elephant poaching and the trading of ivory. The escalating pattern of LRA attacks on wildlife parks - around Garamba and elsewhere – underscores the need for the international community to respond with intensified support to the poaching crisis.
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Thursday, 23 May 2013 |
- A private safari company has moved six white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) from their home in South Africa to Botswana in a bid to save them from an out-of-control poaching crisis in their native land. Currently, around two rhinos are killed every day in South Africa for their horns, which are then smuggled to East Asia.
- This month, &Beyond translocated six rhinos from their Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa to Botswana's Okavango Delta. The move was made shortly after the company helped arrest a number of poachers near the reserve.
- &Beyond says in a press release that the rhinos will receive better protection in Botswana, on account of stronger integration between law enforcement and wildlife management agencies.
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Thursday, 23 May 2013 |
- On May 22, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — the co-chairs of the International Conservation Caucus in the Senate — introduced the Conservation Reform Act.
- If enacted, the legislation would create an interagency working group on international conservation within the federal government to streamline and enhance the U.S.'s ability to advance conservation in regions where reliable and sustainable supplies are critical to America's foreign policy, economic, and national security priorities.
- The National Academy of Sciences and the Government Accountability Office would be required to carry out studies evaluating the effectiveness of existing international conservation programs and the extent to which they secure and enhance benefits nature provides to people. The working group will consult the findings of these studies, as well as an advisory board of business leaders and conservation experts, to craft the U.S.'s first ever "International Conservation Strategy" to submit to the U.S. Congress.
- The Strategy would coordinate with and leverage the participation of relevant executive branch agencies, other countries, the private sector, and private voluntary organizations to conserve natural resources and enhance biodiversity in a manner beneficial to the economic well-being and security of the United States and other participating countries without further indebting our nation during these fiscally challenging times.
- Four years after the International Conservation Strategy is enacted, an audit by the Government Accountability Office would be submitted to the U.S. Congress to report on the extent to which the Strategy has achieved foreign policy and security goals, the extent to which agencies have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of our international conservation programs, and quantifiable economic benefits that resulted from investments in international conservation programs and activities called for in the Strategy.
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Saturday, 18 May 2013 |
- Gabon has agreed to help battle poaching in protected areas in the Central African Republic following a May 10 elephant massacre in the Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site in the Central African Republic.
- According to Wildlife Conservation Society, Michel Djotodia, acting president of the Central African Republic (CAR) transitional government, and Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba met on May 14 to discuss a variety of issues, including the worsening ivory poaching situation in CAR.
- Under the agreement between the two countries, Gabon will assist CAR in developing a national parks agency, training staff in conservation and management of protected areas, and establishing "a legal and institutional framework" for protected areas development and management.
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Thursday, 16 May 2013 |
- Ecuador has successfully eradicated invasive pigs and goats from most of the Galapagos archipelago. Now - in a project led by Island Conservation - it is taking on the rats.
- Rodents feed on the eggs and young of seabirds, land birds and reptiles, and have brought several species — including the rare Pinzón giant tortoise (Chelonoidis duncanensis) — to the brink of extinction.
- Project Isabela, a staged initiative that began in 1997 and cost nearly $10.5 million, resulted in the eradication of invasive pigs from the huge island of Santiago and some 140,000 goats from more than 5,000 square kilometers on several islands. According to officials running the project, it is "the world’s largest island restoration effort to date."
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Tuesday, 07 May 2013 |
- South Africa and Vietnam have signed an action plan to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they had signed earlier on Biodiversity Conservation and Protection.
- The MoU was originally signed by the two countries in Hanoi in December last year. The Implementation Plan, effective until 2017, gives further impetus to the fight against wildlife crimes, particularly rhino poaching.
- The implementation seeks to promote cooperation in law enforcement, which many hope will result in curbing rhino poaching, as well as bilateral collaboration on a wide range of legislative, natural resource management, and biodiversity protection initiatives.
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 |
- The number of rhinos poached in South Africa since the start of the year has increased to 273, with the Kruger National Park continuing to bear the brunt of the killings, says the Department of Environmental Affairs.
- According to the department, 201 rhinos have been killed in the Kruger Park this year.
- Meanwhile, the number of alleged poachers that have been arrested has increased to 83, with five arrests having been made at the Kruger National Park since last week. Since January, a total 41 alleged poachers have been arrested in the park.
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Conservation Updates
